I couldn't help it! I had to
stop and look at this car for sale on the corner listening to my
wife groan as we pulled up. The car had no visible rust and the
reasonable asking price included a 1978 280Z parts car along with
a spare set of wheels. The interior seemed exceptional, most of
the interiors in these cars I had seen were trashed. I bought it
the next weekend for $2600 and parked it in the garage next to my
other "project". The interior came out and I started to
make a list of things I wanted to replace. I bought new carpet,
some other used interior pieces, new rubber, new stereo system,
Optima battery, new NGK spark plug wires, Bosch platinum plugs,
new 15" x 7" Centerline wheels with BF Goodrich 225/50,
and the complete poly bushing kit (all in the floor in the spare
room). I was also able to pick up a Bilstien Anti-Sway Bar kit (1" front and rear), I don't think they make them anymore, made out of
some kind of aircraft grade alloy. A lot more work than I had figured, but worth it in the
end (I HOPE).

The head was weeping antifreeze
so I plan on rebuilding the head when I take it off to replace
the head gasket and the head removal also gave me an excuse to
purchase a header. I was lucky enough to find a Thorley header
that hadn't been made for about 15 years, brand new in the box. I
also plan to polish a majority of the engine components and
detail the engine compartment. The paint code showed the original
color as silver. The black looks good but I will probably repaint
it with PPG based silver base/clear. Black is a pain to take care
of.

Aha, there is some rust next to
the battery! Pretty much surface stuff, a little sanding and some
Eastwood Corroless should do the job. The Optima battery is a dry
cell so the acid eating through the paint that caused the rust
will not be happening anymore.

A little more surface rust in
the interior. I spent the whole afternoon with a heat gun and a
putty knife scraping the sound deadener off of the floorboards.
It appears that in the past the heater core leaked and the
corrosive antifreeze got trapped between the sound deadener and
the metal floor which got the rust going. I have one dime sized
hole on each side so I will cut that piece out and weld in some
new steel. Next I will treat all of it to a healthy dose of
Eastwood Corroless and then top that off with some spray-in
bedliner to both deaden sound and to better protect the metal
than paint. I took the plastic dash cover off because it was
warped a little and didn't line up with some parts of the
original dash. I will end up getting a new cover, dash repair on
this dash would be too much trouble.

Other than that I feel the car
is in better shape than a lot out there. The car has no rust
underneath the wheel wells or on the frame rails. There are no
dings in the body. I eventually plan to replace the bumpers with
the fiberglass kit (already took the stock bumpers off and gave
them away to a fellow Z enthusiast, notice IN-PROGRESS pics above). I still need to drop the fuel tank and remove the rear bumper
mounts, also lower the car a little bit so it doesn't resemble a jeep.

UPDATE: This car has been sold to a fellow Datsun Z enthusiast who will have the time to bring it back to life, click HERE for the eBay ad I used to sell it: